Abstract
The importance of financial development for long-term economic growth has
been recognised by policy-makers arounds the world. Fast growing economies
with limited formal banking services experience greater financial exclusion. The
explosion in mobile phone technology in Africa saw the rapid development of
mobile banking. Many countries in Africa have poor retail banking network
infrastructure especially in the rural areas. Mobile communication networks
introduced innovative products to extend mobile banking into remote rural
locations. The development of mobile banking has contributed towards
enhanced financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In less than ten
years, Kenya has become the leading country in SSA for mobile banking
penetration and mobile banking has been instrumental in providing access to
financial services to the previously unbanked. This article surveys the state of
economic development in Africa as contextualisation of subsequent trends in
banking developments in SSA.